It took almost three years to finish this column. Hard to believe if you consider that I did the first 135 episodes in exactly two years. But the pacing isn't the only thing that has changed.

I played hundreds of my previous maps in the last few days. While reading the descriptions for them, I noticed how much of an idiot I was back then. I stopped counting how many times I ranted about something (like feeling unappreciated) and threatened to leave this site, only to be back the very next day. And don't even get me started on the cringe factor. Oh my god, did I write stupid stuff to fill those description boxes. I'm kind of surprised that I found some friends here with that attitude.

Let's talk about this map now.

I had a lot of pressure to come up with a great idea. Everyone expected something huge. At first, I wanted to do a stunning tileset but then I got it:

The countdown in the last few map titles could also apply to a rocket launch. Fittingly enough, today is New Year's Eve. A rocket isn't too hard to create and perfectly matches my usual simplistic style.

As for the numbers 2008 and 2017, these are my active NUMA years. My first map was submitted on December 28, 2008. I could have uploaded 199-4 on December 28, 2017 to celebrate my ninth year on this site but 199-3 was still doing really well. The New Year's Eve/rocket idea is better anyway.

Hopefully, you'll enjoy it. Thank you for all your support. It's been a wonderful time.

So... is this really my final map? Or just the end for the episodes? The answer will be revealed soon.